Dave King details reasons for withdrawing plans to sell Rangers shares to Club 1872

Dave King has been forced to withdraw from his agreement to sell his shares in Rangers to Club 1872 - which would have made the fans’ group the largest single shareholder in the club.

The former Ibrox chairman agreed a £13million proposal with the supporter organisation to transfer his stake in RIFC plc in December 2020. The structure of the deal gave Club 1872 an inital three-year window to complete the purchase, with King expressing his hope that fans would jump at the opportunity to own a major stake in the Glasgow giants.

However, the South Africa-based businessman has cancelled the funding initiative three years on due to a lack of interest from up to 20,000 ‘legacy members’, with the remainder of his 14.4 per cent shareholding to remain in the ownership of his company New Oasis Asset Ltd.

Club 1872 are currently the sixth largest shareholders in Rangers and the agreement with King, who owns 66.7million shares, was designed to give them a significant say in the running of the club at boardroom level - but that bid has fallen short.

A statement released by King on Tuesday said: “It is with disappointment that I advise that the agreement for Club 1872 to acquire my shareholding in Rangers has been terminated. This year was to be the final year of the agreement and despite my previously stated intentions to extend the agreement (to provide Club 1872 with more time) it has become clear that this will be futile.

“A review of the share purchases undertaken last month reveals that the take-up for the two years to December 2022 is so far short of the agreed amounts that further extensions will not have any meaningful impact in the next few years.

“When I initiated the Never Again campaign I had hoped that supporters would take advantage of my offer to become the largest shareholder in the club, but this never materialised despite the efforts of myself and Club 1872 to promote this campaign. My feedback on the possible reasons for this are:

1- Some supporters prefer to own shares directly.

2- Some supporters would support joint fan ownership, but not within Club 1872.

3- The difficult economic conditions.

4- Supporters no longer feel that the club is under threat.

5- The club’s recent campaign against Club 1872 and its officers.

“I think that a combination of the above is correct and will remain as such for the foreseeable future. Over the last few weeks I have considered whether my dream of supporter ownership could be achieved by extending the offer to other supporter groups in addition to Club 1872, but there is no indication that this will make a material difference.

“In addition, the club’s success with its restrictive resolution at the recent AGM imperils any would-be shareholder. I will continue to vote my shareholding as a supporter and in the best interests of the club.”